What do you despise in a game?

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Instant death is not useless if only strong bosses are immune. It becomes useless when it costs lots of mana, and it can only affect enemies that can be killed by a single normal attack...

 

[Neo Soul Gamer]

For me..?

Stealing. The concept just annoys me. Why steal from someone you're going to kill anyway? I know RPG's aren't known for logical systems, but stealing just annoyed me to no end. Just give me the item as I would normally receive it with the loot, or find another way to get me items.

 

[BoluBolu]

Stealing. The concept just annoys me. Why steal from someone you're going to kill anyway? I know RPG's aren't known for logical systems, but stealing just annoyed me to no end. Just give me the item as I would normally receive it with the loot, or find another way to get me items.

Well stealing actually has it own purpose, some RPG has enemy that posses a rare weapon or rare item or whatever that can only be obtained from stealing(not killing it). This item usually cannot be bought from store too. So stealing is can give player more challenge. Another mechanism is ike Zidane FFIX, if you steal more often the Thievery damage will get very big because it depends on how many your succession in stealing, even if you a bandit steal badass, that skill damage can reach 9999. But if that RPG not has mechanism like I mentioned above and than I agree adding steal is a silly thing XD.

 

[Sharm]

I'm with thechancellor on this one, stealing is a stupid mechanic. On a purely mechanical level it can be interesting but outside of that it makes no sense and breaks immersion a bit. Unless I'm harvesting organs that decay immediately upon death (ew!) there should not be less loot on a monster just because I killed it. The only other place I've seen it work is to get stuff from monsters you can't kill before they run or kill you.

 

[Neo Soul Gamer]

Well stealing actually has it own purpose, some RPG has enemy that posses a rare weapon or rare item or whatever that can only be obtained from stealing(not killing it)

That's exactly why I brought up the point of stealing from something you're going to kill. Almost any system will work if it makes sense. That goes without saying. But I can probably count on one hand the amount of times that I stole from an enemy that wasn't eventually going to be killed. I would still rather see the system disappear in favour of another method of acquiring rare items from enemies.

I'm with thechancellor on this one, stealing is a stupid mechanic. On a purely mechanical level it can be interesting but outside of that it makes no sense and breaks immersion a bit. Unless I'm harvesting organs that decay immediately upon death (ew!) there should not be less loot on a monster just because I killed it. The only other place I've seen it work is to get stuff from monsters you can't kill before they run or kill you.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. 

 

[BoluBolu]

Eell stealing actually has it own purpose, some RPG has enemy that posses a rare weapon or rare item or whatever that can only be obtained from stealing(not killing it)

Well it's you both who didn't understand what I mean or I write this in a vague words. When I mean not killing it, it's exactly means like what Sharm said. The monster cannot be killed.

The only other place I've seen it work is to get stuff from monsters you can't kill before they run or kill you, another what I mean is a monster that has a timer and we need to survive certain amount of time to win(cannot kill it, or not killing it to win) and while defending the attack we have a challenge to get that rare weapon or item.

When I say about Zidane Thievery skill, it's a different case.

 

[Sharm]

I've never even heard of a game that used the steal skill exclusively in that fashion. It may be used that way as a bonus but never as the main reason to use that skill.

 

[Juunanagou]

mmhhh...

1) Useless NPC. Well, someone that says: I'm an Error could be cute, but I don't need in every damn village someone that says: We are in XYZ! Yeah... Great. So what? Want a cookie now you said that? And there are games where almost all npc are useless. They don't give you quests, they don't give you items for free or they don't sell you something. And they don't give you any clues on your quest or subquest, like: I heard that there's an island in the middle of the world were you may find nothing but a key in the sand which open things in the world.

For me, characters should do things. Yes they may "Hi!" you too, but when the story goes on they could change the script.

2) Have to level up like a bodybuilder filled with steroids because "that" particular pink slime kicks you everytime and you can't go on because it even blocks your way. Just why?

3) Useless tech. Like the power pumping up of the mightyness that rise your stats by the incredible value of 2 points. I like more skills that improve and don't waste space in the menu. I won't use Fire for the rest of my life, I'd like to do more damage, so, if I have Fire level Burning Hell, why I have to keep Fire level campfire?

4) Useless classes. In FFV there were classes that were like useless. Like berserker. Or beastmaster. You had to master them for completition, but, seriously, who ever used them then?

5) Awful maps. I hate starting a game with a good story to find maps 50x50 or 100x100 full of nothing. And I found them. I just stop to play. I can't just walk for hours to get somewhere. Or interior with 4-walls and things scattered on the floor randomly. In every room. Worst if you have to explore and "click" on things to gather items. How can I know what I have to "click" to find things if on the floor there are 24835928 objects? Not counting the 3247 windows and wall things.

6) Useless quests. Some dumb quest like: get me 5 bouquets are ok and I'll give you 1 potion are ok, to get confidence with quest system, but when you have to slay the overlord you can stop to do quest for 100 gold, a potion or a wooden sword. More if you have to go up and down everywhere and in places where you couldn't survive 'till a certain level. Like: yeah destroy a thousand dragons of doom. They are scattered in as many towers. The reward is a piece of cloth you can use to... do nothing. Yeah... Someone are fun, someone not.

7) Boring items. Like phoenix down to revive people or echo herb. In non FF games or non commercial games like rpg maker ones. In FF I expect them, but in amatorial games or games made by others I expect some originality.

Well actually a lot of things. There are surely others, but those are the first ones I can think of.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

Steal in Dragon Quest uses the same list as the drop list, you just get a chance for a "drop" every time you use the skill until you manage to steal something.


Personaly pet peeve: Tying anything in your game to real time outside the game. I play games hardcore for about a week and then drop them. I don't want stuff that I get to do once a day. Or stuff that resets every 2 hours. Or to have to wait for my people to heal in real time. I want to be able to play the game at the pace I want to play at.

 

[Matseb2611]

I am not a big fan of stealing skills either, though this mechanic can be executed in such a way that will be realistic. I can't remember what game did something similar to this, but you could have for example a tough machine enemy that resists a lot of damage from normal attacks, but stealing one of its vital parts gives it an instant K.O.

 

[Sharm]

I remember that! I think it was FFX. I liked that particular element but it was another system where most of the time you were getting items from creatures that you wouldn't get if you just killed them. Don't get me wrong, I think a steal skill could be done well but the way it is in every game I've seen it in drives me crazy.

 

[bgillisp]

One way to handle stealing in games is have it so that if you do steal the object, the enemy is weaker as they lose the object. For instance, if you manage to steal their weapon (by don't ask me how methods), they can no longer use that weapon and their ATK is lower as a result. Or, maybe you stole a potion, making it so that they cannot use it in battle anymore? Would be a good idea, though wonder if it could be implemented in RPGMaker. Probably will take a few scripts to do that.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

One way to handle stealing in games is have it so that if you do steal the object, the enemy is weaker as they lose the object. For instance, if you manage to steal their weapon (by don't ask me how methods), they can no longer use that weapon and their ATK is lower as a result. Or, maybe you stole a potion, making it so that they cannot use it in battle anymore? Would be a good idea, though wonder if it could be implemented in RPGMaker. Probably will take a few scripts to do that.

FFT did this. You could only steal equipment from human enemies and they had actual equipment on and you had to target specific pieces. Didn't solve the "why can't I just take this off his corpse" problem, but it made it a bit more interesting than normal steal.


You could also just break equipment, which had a higher success chance, but you didn't get the item.


Poaching from FFT makes more sense than a standard steal skill. You had to kill the enemy with a character who had the poach passive (indicating they knew how to kill without ruining the skin/etc.), and you traded the monsters skin for stuff.

 

[bgillisp]

FFT did this. You could only steal equipment from human enemies and they had actual equipment on and you had to target specific pieces. Didn't solve the "why can't I just take this off his corpse" problem, but it made it a bit more interesting than normal steal.

You could also just break equipment, which had a higher success chance, but you didn't get the item.

Poaching from FFT makes more sense than a standard steal skill. You had to kill the enemy with a character who had the poach passive (indicating they knew how to kill without ruining the skin/etc.), and you traded the monsters skin for stuff.

That's actually what made me think of that idea. Now if they would still drop the same items on defeat it would have made more sense in the end, but it was a start in the right direction. No idea why few other games have improved on it, the only other game I've seen it in is Disgaea.

 

[Juunanagou]

Well in all games usually monster and enemies disentegrate so maybe there aren't corpse to steal from. However it's interesting to steal objects and weaken the enemy. In FFVI you had to use steal to get the outfit from the guards and the merchants in South Figaro, it was funny because they became naked and escaped in shame XD. In chrono trigger you could "steal" from enemy some good weapons and armors during the game, even speed tabs that could be useful. Normally you couldn't find those things around, they were like secret loot.

 

[Neo Soul Gamer]

Well in all games usually monster and enemies disentegrate so maybe there aren't corpse to steal from.

I'll use that as a segue into my next pet peeve. The "maybe". I don't like using my imagination too much when it comes to justifying the existence of certain systems and features. For something like a steal system, the mechanic should have some kind of logic to back it up. Assuming that enemies disintegrate isn't something I'd come up with... Rather, I'd think it's just because there are too many battles to leave the corpses behind on-screen. It would get pretty messy. Even Skyrim has the bodies disappear at some point.

An example of something explained well... FFVII's Materia. There's a whole back story behind their existence, and so the Materia System makes sense.

An example of a "Maybe"... Breath of Fire. The characters can use magic but nothing explains how those abilities were acquired (Except for Ryu's Dragon powers of course). You end up saying "Maybe" that's just how the world works. 

 

[Neok]

There are two mechanics that will make me put down almost any game without a second thought:

-Random encounters. It's not 1990 anymore.

-Save points. It's not 1990 anymore.

Other terrible mechanics:

-Timing elements added to otherwise completely turn-based games. This usually takes the form of quick-time events for super attacks or "timed hits" crap like from Super Mario RPG. If a game is turn-based, it should be 100% turn-based. Don't deceive the player about what kind of gameplay your game has.

-Escape chances. If you're going to make escape an option, it should just work. Chrono Cross is the game to emulate here. If you don't want the player to escape, then don't give them the option at all.

-Status effects which make you unable to control your own characters. This includes sleep, paralysis, confusion, charm, etc. Taking control away from the player in the midst of gameplay is never fun. It turns the game into a movie.

-Instant death. Go die in a fire.

-Forced "filler" quests. Sidequests which boil down to collecting 20 stamps or killing 15 bears are shallow and uninteresting enough as they are but at least I can avoid them. Never, ever force the player to do something like that because it's boring and monotonous.

-Fishing minigames.

-Items having a rare drop chance. This is doubly inexcusable if there's a quest that requires you to get one of these items. This is quadruply inexcusable if the main plot requires you to do this!

-Grinding. If I ever die against a boss and am unable to beat it after multiple tries, then when I look for help beating it I'm informed that I'm too low a level, I'm pretty much just done with your game. If your combat is so badly-designed that you need to rely on forcing the player to go out of their way to waste their time fighting meaningless encounters over and over in order to inject challenge into it, then your gameplay is fundamentally broken. Level should never be a deciding factor for whether or not you can overcome a challenge. And if you feel the need to respond to this with "that would make the game too easy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" then you are part of the problem and should seriously rethink how you create interesting challenges in a game.

I'll concur with all of this, and add: extremely dark areas, not being able to skip text/cut scenes, and not being given complete information on what an item/equipment does.

 

[Sailerius]

I'll concur with all of this, and add: extremely dark areas, not being able to skip text/cut scenes, and not being given complete information on what an item/equipment does.

Oh man, I forgot about extremely dark areas. What's worse is that there's often no gameplay purpose served by it so it only serves to annoy the player and make getting through the area twice as long because you have to brute force your way through since you can't navigate effectively

Atmosphere is not an excuse to make your game annoying to play!

Actually, let's generalize that: never make your game annoying to play! Seriously, annoyance is the opposite of what I want to experience when playing a game.

 

[bgillisp]

Oh man, I forgot about extremely dark areas. What's worse is that there's often no gameplay purpose served by it so it only serves to annoy the player and make getting through the area twice as long because you have to brute force your way through since you can't navigate effectively

Atmosphere is not an excuse to make your game annoying to play!

Actually, let's generalize that: never make your game annoying to play! Seriously, annoyance is the opposite of what I want to experience when playing a game.

Let me third that. I have played some games that have decided for one reason or another (Dragon's Dogma comes to mind) that nighttime you should not be able to see your hand in front of your face. Seriously? Why should nighttime in a wide open area be that dark? Are there no stars or moon in your game?

 

[Faye Valentine]

Some of you don't like grinding, but grinding is PART of an RPG. What do you expect then? just run avoiding everything and face the boss at lvl 2? You actually NEED to grind in every RPG game because it's necessary to prepare to battle bosses and obtain gold. Now, excessive grinding is another thing. Grinding fails when the game has high risk but low reward, and it doesn't give the player a chance (finite heal points for example)